Corporate Travel Program Optimization Checklist

Global business travel spending is expected to reach $2 trillion within three years. While this amount indicates post-pandemic recovery, GBTA findings state we remain below pre-COVID levels when inflation is factored in.

Inflationary pressures will continue to bring uncertainty to corporate travel programs, resulting in a need for companies to:

Create a travel policy that prioritizes traveler safety while enabling them to achieve organizational goals
Identify strategic process enhancements to elevate the overall travel experience while optimizing travel policy compliance and travel spend control.
Integrate health and wellness in corporate travel to keep employees happy, healthy, and engaged
Determine company travel policy changes that will lead to more sustainable business travel practices

If challenges like these are keeping you up at night, our Corporate Travel Program Optimization Checklist is here to help. Here's what you need to create a flexible travel program that prioritizes communication, enhancing traveler experiences, promoting health and wellness, and managing suppliers effectively.

Step 1: Prioritize clear communication for all business travelers

Objective: Provide a clear travel management platform for business travelers to understand the current state of travel, enable travelers with real-time insights to make informed decisions, and strategize plans for their future journeys.

Review, approve, and distribute your business travel timelines with stakeholders. ☐
Create a communication plan to regularly inform corporate travelers on safe travel locations, regulatory requirements, corporate travel policy updates, and resources for women and minority groups. ☐
Test communication protocols and channels for deliverability. ☐
List reputable travel options and websites offering up-to-date information on current regulations and conditions, categorized by location. ☐
Clearly articulate required traveler profile updates and documentation for domestic and international travel. ☐
Prompt travelers to check with organizations directly to confirm any additional rules for outside visitors. ☐
For office employees, collaborate with HR about returning to the office after a trip. ☐

Step 2: Create a seamless travel experience

Objective: Create a frictionless employee travel experience, empowering them to make well-informed purchasing decisions that align with their personal preferences while remaining compliant with your company travel policy.

Update your corporate travel policy to set clear limits and advanced booking suggestions for every type of expense, from air and rail travel to rental cars, rideshares, and other sharing economy vendors. ☐
Enhance your travel policy by including addendums to address temporary changes such as hybrid work expense policies, handling non-preferred vendors, or when negotiated amenities aren’t available. ☐
Publish your travel and expense policy to a central location and within your expense solution so traveling employees have access. ☐
Enhance travel budget management and rationalize the investment in each business trip by leveraging assessments and pre-trip approval workflows. ☐
Create custom policy controls that automatically flag travel expenses that are non-compliant or outside the list of preferred vendors. ☐
Streamline and automate your expense submission, review, and approval process to eliminate cumbersome workflows and capture all required expense and travel data. ☐
Delegate backup approvers in case the primary approver is not available. ☐
Implement post-trip traveler engagement surveys to help guide the crucial task of rebuilding a successful travel program. ☐
Ensure travelers know their emergency contacts and how to get assistance on the road. ☐
Leverage a self-service travel management solution with apps that simplify everything from travel booking to checking in or out of hotels. ☐

Step 3: Prioritize health and wellness for corporate travelers

Objective: Implement an effective managed travel program that upholds the physical and mental well-being of each corporate traveler.

Provide corporate travel services, opportunities, and tools for employees to assess travel risks related to their trips. ☐
Compile travel risk management assessment reports that detail globally consolidated data, before traveling to high-risk destinations. ☐
Collaborate with human resources to ensure a proper duty of care and address the risks in business travel. ☐
Implement a wellness program to help employees cope with travel-related stressors at home or abroad. ☐
Supply additional mental health and supplemental insurance resources so travelers can access quality care regardless of personal coverage. ☐
Check in with employees regularly to ensure they feel supported and comfortable traveling on behalf of the company. ☐

Step 4: Build strategic relationships with suppliers

Objective: Build strong relationships with preferred suppliers to meet everyone’s expectations.

Leverage travel data analytics to shape your travel policy, identify savings opportunities, and encourage better booking decisions. ☐
Regularly communicate with preferred suppliers to identify any influences that may impact availability, rates, or amenities. ☐
Renegotiate terms to account for modified travel volumes so that you can maintain negotiated contracts. ☐
Review contracts for additional fees that may have been recently introduced, such as enhanced cleaning procedures. ☐
Request additional information about changes to service routes due to unforeseen circumstances. ☐
Understand a vendor’s sanitation protocols to ensure traveler safety and whether additional fees apply. ☐
Target environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals with suppliers such as ☐:
- Lowering carbon footprint by selecting vendors that offset emissions via carbon credits or other sustainability initiatives like fuel sources
- Selecting hotel options with environmentally friendly procedures, policies, and amenities
- Choosing a rental car supplier that offers hybrid vehicles to reduce emissions

Future-proof your travel program for agility and traveler satisfaction

A strategically optimized travel program, built to stay agile amidst shifting conditions, ensures that your organization maximizes the value of each trip. By integrating flexible and proactive solutions, you can help future-proof your organization’s travel program and position your team to better capitalize on emerging opportunities to drive sustained business impact.

About Emburse®

Emburse delivers innovative end-to-end travel management software that solves for what’s next for forward-thinking organizations. Our suite of award-winning products are trusted by more than 12 million finance and travel leaders, and business professionals around the world. More than 20,000 organizations in 120 countries, from Global 2000 corporations and small-medium businesses to public sector agencies and nonprofits, count on us for effective business travel management and to put employee expenses with ease.

Our highly automated, mobile-first, solutions streamline business travel arrangements planning, booking and management, and eliminate manual, time-consuming expense submissions, approval and reconciliation. We deliver efficiency and time savings, increase financial visibility, enhance spend control and compliance, and improve the entire business travel experience. This empowers our customers and their teams to deliver meaningful value for their organizations.

For more information, visit emburse.com or follow our social channels at @emburse.